After Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) was busted in Bengaluru, National Investigation Agency (NIA) has unearthed another Bangladeshi militant group Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) which is active in the Silicon Valley and other parts of the country.
It is alleged that Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh, founded by Maulana Abdur Rahman in 1998, created ABT after the extremist group was banned by the Indian government in May 2019. Ansarullah Bangla's presence in Bengaluru came into light after the NIA team from Kolkata arrested a man named Mahmood Hassan from Guwahati, who told the investigating officers that he was previously staying in Bengaluru as a student.
The NIA sleuths raided the paying guest accommodation at Soladevanahalli, where Hassan was staying during his time in Bengaluru, and seized a video recorder belonging to him. Reports state that ABT has a strong online presence and is trying to recruit techies from Silicon Valley into the organisation
Terror organisation expanding base
Recently, Inspector General of NIA Alok Mittal had revealed the hiding spots of ISIS and JMB terrorists in Bengaluru with a list of 125 suspects. He said that JMB had set up 20-22 hideouts in Bangalore from 2014 to 2018 and is trying to expand its base in south India.
NIA revealed that JMB had conducted a trial of rocket launchers at Krishnagiri hills, along the Karnataka-Tamil Nadu border, and the terror group is carrying out its operations under the disguise of Bangladeshi migrants.
In July, NIA had arrested five JMB cadres who are suspects in 2014 Burdwan blasts - Asif Iqbal, Dilawar Hussain, Mustafizur Rahman, Adil Sheikh and Abdul Kareem - in a raid at Soladevanahalli. The raids were conducted at a rented house and the investigating agency seized explosives, including grenades, materials for improvised explosive devices (IED) and rockets.
